The Morels and Puff Balls of Madison. Ill 



A small lead-colored specimen from Albany, N. Y., in the Curtis her- 

 barium {Peck, no. 76), under this name has round nearly stalkless rough 

 spores 5 /< in diameter, and is evidently a denuded plant of B. circum- 

 scissaH. &. C, not yet found in Wisconsin. 



I can corroborate the assertion of Vittadini that this is one of the most 

 dehcate of edible fungi when gathered young and properly cooked. The 

 first sign of discoloration, as with other puff-balls, marks it as too old for 

 the table. 



3. BoviSTA PILA B. & C. , seldom less than an inch and a half in diameter, 

 usually two or two and a half inches, irregularly globose or somewhat 

 pinched in at the base, which often bears remnants of a myceliae cord. 

 Peridium with at most a very dehcate flaking outer layer, typically smooth 

 and glistening, grayish-buff, dark gray or blackish-purple, usually dehiscing 

 late by an irregular fissure at no fixed i^oint. Twigs of the capillitium 

 wavy, tapering, chestnut-brown, paler toward the tips, fading to a decided 

 pink m old weathered specimens. Spores nearly spherical, stalkless, 

 3,5 — 5//, nearly smooth, paler than in the last. — PI. 1, f. 6. — Abundant 

 in wood-pastiu-es, less frequent in open fields. 



This species was originally described (Grevillea, ii. 49) from Wisconsin 

 specimens collected by Lapham. I have seen other specimens from She- 

 boygan (Brown), Sparta and Middleton (Miss Schuster), Bloomingdale and 

 La Crosse (PammeT), and have collected it in abundance at Weyauwega. 

 In its nearly single jDeridium and irregular dehiscence, tliis is decidedly 

 unlike typical sjDecies of Bovista. Like the last, it is excellent eating when 

 gathered young and properly cooked. 



Bovista ammox^Mla, Lev., reported (perhaps on specimens of the last) 

 from Wisconsin by Bundy (Rep. Geol. Surv., i, 399), has a similar cord-hke 

 base, but is distinguished by its spores, which, as figured by Leveille ( Ann , 

 Sci. Nat. Bot. 3 ser. ix, pi. 9, f. 5-6), are prominently obovoid and long- 

 pedicelled. 



B. subterranea , Pk., a depressed-globose species, which matures just be- 

 low the surface of the ground, biilging it up at matmity; is recognized by 

 its firm dull-brown inner peridium, half an inch to an inch and a half in 

 diameter, opening by a smaU apical pore; its fleecy outer peridium, impreg- 

 nated with dirt and evanescent above; and oUve-purple capilUtium and 

 spores, the former flexuous and rather sparingly branched, the latter glo- 

 bose, stalkless, rough, 4 -=- 7 « in diameter. This species, described from 

 Dakota specimens, has been collected by me in Colorado, and comes from 

 River Falls (King), so that it may be looked for at Madison, in sandy soU, 

 Myeenastrum sxnnulosum., Pk. (Bot. Gaz., iii, 170; vi, 240) a species of the 

 Southwest which also occurs in the collection made by Dr. Brown at She- 

 boygan; is a gi'ay puff -ball, ii-regular or kidney-shaped, measuring as 

 much as four inches in its greatest diameter. It may be recognized by its 

 smooth, almost woody, peridium, nearly one-sixteenth inch thick, at last 

 breaking steUately, often vsdth serrate edges to the lobes, and by its purple- 



